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Album Cover Analysis - Demi Lovato, Confident

This is the album cover for Demi Lovatos 2015 album Confident.
The cover presents as a medium full shot of Demi, from a slightly
lower angle. The use of a medium full shot has been done to
showcase her figure without taking away the intimacy of a mid
shot. The slightly lower angle of the shot gives her a sense of
power and importance, which goes hand in hand with the title of
the album, Confident.

Her body is posed in an open fashion, with her head turned to

the side. By doing this, she invites the audience to see her body
without it seeming overly sexual. Instead, her head turned to the
side shows us that she has confidence in her body, she knows
that she looks good.

However, the cover conforms to Laura Mulvey's, a feminist film

theorist, Male Gaze theory. She suggested that the audience
views all women from a heterosexual males view point, that
through the eyes of a camera, we see women as sexual beings.

This cover conforms to this theory as although Demi is clearly

accepting the fact she is being viewed in this way, the audience
is still viewing her through the eyes of a heterosexual male.

The cover does however subvert from Betty Freidans Feminine

Mystique theory. She suggested that women are (and are happy
to be) portrayed as housewives and mothers in the media, while
the men are seen as dangerous and outrageous. This album cover
clearly subverts from this idea however, using costume code and
body language to do so.

Her costume in the shot is small, black and wild looking - not at
all like the housewife look that Freidan had suggested. It
instead gives off the idea of wildness and danger, that Demi is
carefree and powerful as well as aesthetically pleasing and able
to be viewed sexually. The striking black of her clothing against
the pure white of the background emphasises this powerful
image further, as it stands out against the backdrop and so your
eyes immediately go to her.

Her body language itself gives of the idea of power and

confidence, as she has her stance open and her head turned to
the side. This subversion from Freidans theory is something that
is common among female artists and women in general in the
modern world, and will only continue in the post-modern woman,
who will portray the role of both a mother, a worker and a
powerful woman.

The genre of the cover is somewhat ambiguous, as there is no

direct signifiers to aid the audience in understanding it. The black
colours are usually associated with heavier music of rock and
metal, however the costume code is that of a R&B and pop. The
actual genre of this album is in fact a mix of pop and rock, so
the signifiers are presented in a mixed fashion.